A frother is an essential tool for making iced coffee during hot weather. But do you know how to make cold foam without a frother? Well, you can spice things up and make a cold foam using alternative tools. These tools will still help you get the best-tasting cold coffee.
For more details, continue scrolling.

What is Cold Foam?
What is cold foam? Cold foam is low-fat milk used to create textured, stiff foam. This milk retains the most texture and produces the greatest foam. The foam is available in a variety of iced coffee beverages.
Furthermore, it is great to spice up iced and cold brew coffees. Cold foam is a fairly new invention when making coffee using a frother. But how to make cold foam without a frother?
But before we start preparing cold foam without a frother, you need to understand the basics. First, typically, what the frother entails.
What is a Frother?
A frother is a tool that is essential for making cold foam, commonly on top of cappuccinos and lattes. This is a tool that many baristas and professionals love to use when making coffee. Milk frother comes in different types and works in different ways.
First, there is a type of milk frother that works on the milk quickly using a cooled whisk. Here, it pushes air into the milk and whips it. You won’t miss this type of frother when you walk into homes.
Secondly, another milk frother pushes steam through the tool into the milk, creating micro bubbles that mostly turn into foam. This type of frother is available on espresso machines.
Now that you know what cold foam is and understand how a frother works, what does cold foam taste like? Continue scrolling to learn more.
What Does Cold Foam Taste Like?
When people hear about cold foam, they start wondering how it tastes. But those who have tasted it have different views. Truly, a saying goes, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” So cold foam’s taste might vary.
For instance, If you focus on the creaminess of a perfectly frothed whole-milk latte, cold foam might be a bit of a letdown. For starters, it doesn’t mix into cold beverages well. Therefore, it won’t be suitable for a milkier-tasting beverage.
You will only enjoy it a little if you’re cool with non-fat milk, as it is similarly watery and flavorless. In case you go for non-fat milk, then add a splash of half and a half to your cold brew.
In general, anyone can enjoy a whole milk iced latte with cold foam because it makes the drink look fancy and tastier. On the contrary, you can’t make cold foam with a non-dairy alternative like soy or almond milk.
But why is it difficult? Well, non-dairy alternatives are notoriously difficult to thicken because they have low protein content and are thus watery. For instance, the low percentage of protein in almond milk makes it challenging to froth since the milk contains water.
With all that in mind, it’s time to make cold foam without a frother. So, take your tools and hit the kitchen to prepare your favorite coffee drink with cold foam.
How to Make Cold Foam Without a Frother?
Cold foam has to top the list whether you’re looking for a new iced coffee recipe or tired of the usual chocolate syrup or cream topping on your latte. Making the foam at home is simple as long as you use the right tools and ingredients.
Apart from using a milk frother, you can make a cold foam using a blender, french press, or mason jar. However, you don’t have to worry. They are easy methods you may have already come across or own in your kitchen. Here are the major ones.
A Blender
One of the most common and easy methods of making a cold foam at home is using a blender. As one of the quickest and simplest methods, it combines pretty quickly, so your cold foam will be ready in minutes. This method is suitable for people looking to make large amounts. So, do you know how to make cold foam in a blender? Check out below.
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 1 serving
Equipment
- Blender
- Cup
Ingredients
- Take low-fat milk; one cup. Remember that you can always pour in less milk if you don’t need as much or more if you do.
Steps
To prepare cold foam in a blender, follow these simple steps.
- In the cup of your blender, pour the chilled milk.
- Place the blender cup with the milk inside it on the device.
- Ensure that the blender blades crank up gradually until they operate at full speed.
- Focus on volume because the foam will come out better with more volume.
- After the milk has become frothy and smooth, remove it from the blender cup.
- Serve with your favorite snack.
Other than a normal blender, you can make a cold foam with an immersion blender. Put the milk in a bowl or cup using the immersion blender and whip it until it becomes foamy. Start at a low speed and increase towards the maximum speed. Now, use your foam however you like. After using the blender, remember to wash and rinse the cup.
Handle Mixer
Another effective method is using a hand mixer. Using a hand-held mixer to create cold foam is easy. You can substitute the little blender with the hand-held mixer. This method will be useful when you intend to make a smaller quantity.
For example, for just one cup of iced coffee, the blender shouldn’t need to be very dirty, right? So, remember to wash it.
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 1 serving
Equipment
- Portable hand mixer
- Bowl/can
Ingredients
- Milk storage container: a little dish or a mixer attachment
- Low-fat milk (4 cups) 0.12 liters in half
Steps
To prepare cold foam with a hand mixer, follow these steps.
- Choose a bowl, then pour the chilled milk into it.
- In the bowl of milk, place the hand mixer.
- Start slowly to prevent spreading milk all over your kitchen surface.
- Increasing the speed gradually will cause the milk to foam more.
- Remove the mixer from your milk once it has fully foamed.
- Pour the cold foam into a can; you’re good to go!
Any bowl or cup will do; occasionally, they include a cup when purchasing a portable mixer. So, remember to clean your equipment before adding your homemade, fluffy cold foam to those delectable iced coffees.
French Press
Apart from a hand mixer and a blender, you can make cold foam with a french press. A French press is a common device you can’t miss in coffee enthusiasts’ homes. It is a perfect tool to make cold foam.
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 1 serving
Equipment
- French press
- Cup
Ingredients
- 4 cups (0.12 liters) of low-fat Milk
Steps
To make cold foam using a french press, follow these steps.
- Pour the cold milk into a beaker with a clean french press.
- Place the plunger on top, then depress.
- You start making little air bubbles by pushing the French press plunger up and down.
- Continue stirring until a lovely, thick coating of frothed milk forms. It usually takes between 30 and 45 seconds, but it also depends on how much milk you intend to create.
Using the milk mentioned above, a good amount of cold foam can be achievable. The quantity is adequate for two cups of iced coffee. You can add more milk if you want to make more coffee cups.
Mason Jar
Lastly, you can make cold foam using a jar. This is the best method since you don’t need a power source or fancy tools. Typically, you can’t complain. Also, everyone has a jar or two.
You can also create cold foam in a resealable jar if you still lack the above-mentioned tools.
You can apply this approach, for instance, to a mason jar. You could even use a storage container with a lid or an empty jam jar that is very clean. To get started, you’ll need the following supplies and tools.
Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Yield: 1 serving
Equipment
- A Resealable jar
- Cup
Ingredients
- Low-fat milk, half a cup, or 0.12 liter. Container.
Steps
To make cold foam with a mason jar, follow these steps.
Put your jar with the cold milk inside.
- Put the lid on.
- Shake the container thoroughly for a lot of foam to form. This act will take about a minute.
- When the foam is ready, remove the jar’s cover and begin using the new foam!
The simplest method for creating cold foam at home is this. And you can use it to make a variety of delectable coffee beverages, particularly iced coffee. The best thing about utilizing this jar is that you can easily scoop the foam out of the container without moving it from your blender to a cup.

What is the Best Milk to Use for Cold Foam?
Have you ever thought about creating this foam at home? If so, what milk came into your mind? Well, making cold foam is more than just milk. Even if you can use any milk, the major difference will be how it whips and becomes creamy.
So, you need the right type of milk. For example, to make cold foam, you can use the following types of milk.
Non-Fat Milk
You’ll get the best results with skim milk. Typically, 1/4 cup (0.01 liter) of skim milk froths up into about one cup of cold foam, and you can easily use it to top two iced coffee drinks! At first, it may seem like the frothing has many bubbles, but the cold foam is surprisingly stiff. It’s thick enough to scoop with a spoon right off your iced coffee!
While it may look like whipped cream, it will only taste like skim milk unless you add flavoring. For example, you can create your sweet vanilla cream with vanilla syrup (or vanilla extract plus sweetener), add pumpkin to create a cold foam cream, or even caramel to make a salted cream cold foam.
It is a nice try But, if you want to keep the calories and sugar down, you can stick with plain cold foam.
Heavy Cream
Heavy cream, used to make whipped cream, also makes excellent cold foam. However, it turns out that whipped cream and cold foam are different. With heavy cream and a milk frother, you get whipped cream.
You can make skim milk into a thick, slightly sweet, cold foam by mixing it with a tiny amount of heavy cream, but skim milk is not the best liquid to use on its own to create cold foam. Other than that, you can make cold foam without this cream.
So, how to make cold foam without heavy cream? All you need to do is to pour the milk into a large jar. Then fill the jar up to a third and close the lid tightly. Shake the jar until the milk froths and has doubled in volume for about 30 to 60 seconds.
Non-Dairy Milk
When making cold foam, skim milk works fine, but what if you’re vegan or non-dairy? Test out a few dairy-free substitutes to see whether they could produce a respectable cold foam.
For instance, almond milk without sugar cannot froth up at all. In reality, all it does is produce a few bubbles, which rapidly disperse after the frothing process is complete.
Also, a mixture of almond and cashew milk with the addition of pea protein because the unsweetened almond milk is primarily water. Compared to unsweetened almond milk, the frothing is noticeably better.
2-fat or low-fat milk is the ideal milk to use while producing foam. These kinds of milk can generate large numbers of persistent, tiny milk bubbles, which are an essential component of cold foam.
Consider it this way: the amount of air you add to milk will determine how many bubbles it generates. This will produce a fine, velvety-textured cold foam that is wonderful on top of many iced coffee beverages.
When you want to pamper yourself after a long day of work, use half & half or heavy cream instead of low-fat milk. A richer, creamier foam that is even better than you can prepare by using heavy cream or half and half.
Making the foam with half and a half or plain heavy cream will work fine and taste much better than non-fat milk because most air bubbles want to trap themselves in thicker, higher-fat milk.
Cold Foam’s Nutritional Value
Cold foam is not just a coffee topper but something that will benefit your body. Consuming it will add essential nutrients to help boost your immunity to a healthy body functioning. Due to the ingredients, it contains the following great nutritional value.
First of all, the nutritional value depends on the serving size. If the serving is more, the nutritional information will be more and vice versa. So the nutritional value will be as follows for a serving size of a ΒΌ cup (0.01 liter) of milk:
- Calories: 23 Kcal (2.5 grams)
- Carbohydrates: 0.1 ounce (4 grams)
- Proteins: 0.07 ounce (2 grams)
Other Ideas of How to Use Cold Foam
You can try different ideas besides using cold foam in coffee. Here are some of the best iced coffee drinks topped with cold foam. And who knows, you might find them interesting.
Vanilla Cream Cold Brew
One of the most common ways to use cold foam is in vanilla cream cold brew. This combo brings out a very delightful and divine taste. Next, add sweet vanilla syrup to your cold foam.
After that, put your preferred cold brew coffee on top of an ice cup and add vanilla cold foam. In the end, you will achieve an unmatched drink like no other.
Iced London Fog Tea Latte
Pour the cold tea over ice, then top it with foam. Since it is a bitter latte, add tea and vanilla to sweeten the flavor. After this, please chill it in the fridge for about ten minutes.
Iced Mocha
Last but not least, add cold foam to the mocha. Mocha is a favorite drink for people who love chocolate. To do this, prepare an iced mocha, and add a few tablespoons of sugar, milk, and cocoa powder in a saucepan.
Allow it to simmer, remove it from the heat, then whisk in your preferred cold brew. In case it has a strong taste, add heavy cream or milk.
Cold Foam Expert Tips
Yes, now you are almost a pro, and you can make cold foam like a barista. However, that’s not enough. As they say, every day is a learning day. This means that you need additional knowledge to produce the best results. So, check out the following potential tips to help you make cold foam just the way you like it.
- To make a super quick cold foam, replace the heavy cream and milk with half-and-half measurements. There’s one ingredient to measure, like a lighter version of cold foam.
- To achieve the best cold foam with a smooth texture, ensure it’s in a small quantity and uniform bubbles form in the cream and milk.
- Instead of milk or cream, use cold foam in iced drinks. You can also add it to drinks with milk or cream to make them even creamier.
- Keep cold foam out of sit for a long. Typically, cold foam is best when it’s made and served immediately. So, enjoy it while it’s fresh.
FAQ About Making Cold Foam Without a frother
The notion of making cold foam without a frother has left people with numerous questions. The truth is you can make coffee without a frother. As mentioned earlier, you can use tools such as a mason jar or a blender.
To get facts right, check out the following frequently asked questions. You might get the answer you are looking for.
Q: Can I flavor my cold foam?
A: As mentioned earlier, there’s no harm in flavoring your cold foam. Many flavors, such as vanilla, help you achieve a great taste. You can use the one that suits you best.
Q: What kind of coffee can I put cold foam on?
A: There are different types of coffee to put cold foam. Among them are iced lattes and iced coffee. However, the best option is cold brew coffee, which works wonders.
Q: How long does cold foam last?
A: Cold foam lasts up to three days. To store, pour any leftover foam into a jar with a lid and store it in the fridge to use during your preference.
Q: Is cold foam the same as whipped cream?
A: No, cold foam and whipped cream are two different things. Whipped cream is thicker than cold foam. On the other hand, cold foam is lighter. Additionally, whipped cream holds its shape better than cold foam. But generally, both toppings foam as adding air to heavy cream or milk.
Q: Is cold foam healthy?
A: Cold foams are healthier than other toppings like whipped cream since it has fewer calories and less sugar. You can take cold foam frequently without worrying about consuming too many calories.

We’ve Got You Covered
Coffee is a favorite drink for many people. Some like it hot while others are cold. So you will get a cup or two in every household. But sometimes, you may want to add cold foam. Since you can make it with a frother, you can also make a cup without it. Read our article and find out A Coffee Cup Sizes Chart.
You can use tools such as a blender or a mason jar. If you want to make cold foam, follow the recipe outlined above. Depending on the type of equipment, you can make different variations. So get into the kitchen and prepare your soft top coffee.